WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 10: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy is seen during a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House April 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As one justice settles into his new job at the Supreme Court, is another about to leave?

Eighty-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy is so far refusing to comment on speculation that he may soon retire after 29 years on the court.

But that hasn’t stopped President Donald Trump and the Republican senator in charge of high court confirmation hearings from weighing in on the prospect that Kennedy could step down as soon as this spring or summer.

Several former law clerks tell the AP that if it’s not this year, they would not be surprised to see the justice retire in 2018.

Kennedy’s departure would give Trump a second Supreme Court vacancy and the chance to cement conservative control of the court for a decade or more.